Technology keeps us connected to the world at large, but often at the expense of shunning the very people around us
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echnology has irreparably altered the world we call home. The people around us and we ourselves are incessantly plugged in and online virtually everywhere and in any manner possible — day in, day out. We can be connected from the moment we get out of bed, have coffee in the kitchen, take the train to work, and after we get back home. This connectedness, ironically, does not necessarily translate into real human connection in real time, in the real world.
Regina Brett, bestselling author and inspirational speaker, once remarked, “Sometimes you have to disconnect to stay connected. Remember the old days when you had eye contact during a conversation? When everyone wasn’t looking down at a device in their hands? We’ve become so focused on that tiny screen that we forget the big picture, the people right in front of us.”
This is not an uncommon lament for many of us in this digital age. Parents, for example, complain about their teenage children being glued to their devices even at the dining table, the offsprings, with headphones on, often communicating back (if it can still be called as such) without so much as a complete sentence, facial expression, or looking away from their phone.
Both the younger and more mature folk among us are not guiltless in this respect either. Many in the personal circles of people I am acquainted with succumb to this inane ritual of gathering, say, at coffee shops, but instead of enjoying an honest-to-goodness chat over coffee and dessert, they sit around all hunched over their cellphone or laptop — barely talking or acknowledging each other’s presence for minutes, even hours on end. You’d wonder why they met up in the first place.
Ironically, immersing in social media and social networks have made individuals increasingly interconnected in cyberspace but less and less connected with humanity in the real, living world.
Cartoon by Alex Noriega, www.snotm.com
... Look forward to the day when bringing your iPhone to a bar — and using it there — is unfashionable again.
Which raises the question: if connectivity breeds a sort of human disconnect, where is society headed? I’d like to think this is just a phase in this digital frontier, and look forward to the day when bringing your iPhone to a bar — and using it there — is unfashionable again. — ANPJ/3
We’ve become so focused on that tiny screen that we forget the big picture, the people right in front of us.”
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